Gardenia unveils new plant, sees brighter future

MANILA, Philippines - Gardenia Bakeries Philippines, Inc. (GBPI), the country’s leading bread manufacturer, is looking at a better and brighter future for its local operations as it inaugurates its newest manufacturing plant at the company’s facilities located in Biñan, Laguna.

The new, state-of-the-art bread manufacturing plant is capable of making 6,000 loaves of bread per hour or nearly 150,000 loaves per day, almost doubling its production capability. The new plant’s increased capacity enables the bread-manufacturing giant to deliver more freshly-baked breads to more households, marking another milestone for the company since it began operating in the country.

“With the opening of this plant, we took the bread-manufacturing process in the Philippines a notch higher. Using the latest and high technology equipment to make the breads practically untouched by human hands, we are now more than capable to continue providing safe and best quality products that many Filipinos can enjoy any time of the day,” declares Simplicio Umali Jr., GBPI president and general manager, during the opening.

The new facility features advanced equipment that adheres to globally-accepted baking industry standards. Its advanced dough making and proofing system ensures the right structure and consistency in the texture of breads. It uses one of the world’s most technologically-advanced and environment-friendly large-scale ovens that can utilize compressed natural gas as an alternative to LPG. A new pan handling system that uses robotic pan-feeding and stacking equipment allows the baking pans to be stored automatically and vice-versa.

Essentially, the new plant uses state-of-the-art machines imported from Germany, the Netherlands, Japan and the US. This attests to the plant’s exceptional quality and world-class superiority, which serves as a testament to GBPI’s leadership in the bread-manufacturing industry, and further cements the company’s stature as a top bread-maker.

The new plant also adheres to current Good Manufacturing Practices (cGMP), and follows the highest globally-accepted food quality and safety standards through the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP).

Also, the new plant’s advanced equipment and the kind of ingredients it uses enables Gardenia to produce baked bread following a unique baking process. From ingredient preparation to mixing, to the make-up process and oven baking, to the bread depanning and cooling, and finally, to the automated slicing and packaging, each step is closely monitored by highly trained, quality controllers who do visual and physical inspection, an important aspect in the whole process to ensure quality breads are delivered to the market. The whole process ensures that every loaf produced is of consistent superior quality and constantly meets customer expectations when it comes to their daily bread.

Finally, the finished products pass through a metal detector to check that there are no metal contaminants and then placed on clean trays for dispatch. From there, Gardenia’s renowned delivery and distribution system, the country’s biggest, and can dispatch 650,000 loaves and buns daily, takes over. The distribution center is an essential part of the system to assure that only the freshest, safest to eat, and healthiest bread products reach Filipino homes and stores nationwide.

Gardenia breads have been renowned primarily because of its deliciousness that is hard to copy since it uses only the finest ingredients available from both the international as well as the local market and are made based on Gardenia’s specifications. Its high quality control standards ensure that all ingredients meet the company’s strictest quality specifications and are delivered via the Just-in-Time System so that freshness of the ingredients and raw materials are ensured.

With the uncompromising choices of only the finest ingredients, it makes Gardenia breads not only tastier, softer and healthier but also zero-transfat, cholesterol-free and bromate-free, and are also enriched and fortified with vitamins and minerals and folate for better nutrition.

“We believe that our customers deserve the best that is why we came up with the best bread-manufacturing plant possible, to assure them that the products they get are only of the best quality. We committed ourselves to make Gardenia products from only the finest ingredients and with this new plant, we can continue bringing that quality and freshness guarantee that Gardenia gives,” continues Umali.